Album Review: Soundtracks From The Shaolin Temple - Rza/Wu Tang Clan
16 January, 2009
by: Music Team
Ah the Wu-Tang Clan, bless their cotton socks. They make tunes with
Beatle offspring these days don't cha' know. What happened to bringing
the muthaf***ing ruckus? Will this latest release makes up for the game
of 'find the the good track' that was the Wu-Tang album? With a
heavyweight roster of guests, including Lord Jamar and MF Doom, it
looked to be a safe bet.
'Lyrical Swords' by Think Differently, featuring GZA and Ras Kass, is a stand out tune. Bouncy and funky with big dark
trumpet stabs. Going on his form on this album and by that of his
recent solo album it seems that Gza is in fine fettle. He raps on six
of the tracks here and they are all pretty good. He features alone on
'Alphabets', which is a quality slice of that RZA,
endless loop, head-nod pie. On it he describes himself as a 'legend in
his own lifetime' and it's not an idle boast. Gza is also on The Eve Of
War with Jedi Mind Tricks. It's a good track except that it seems to
sample the same classical piece that is the soundtrack to the Scottish
Widow advert with the hooded, cloaked, woman in a maze. This makes it
slightly comedy to us brits but they don't have scottish widow adverts
in New York so Rza wasn't to know. Rza also raps with MF Doom on
'Biochemical Equation', which is a weird beat. Big, phaser laden
strings in a short loop with a little drum and bass break down in the
middle. MF Doom's voice and flow would probably have sounded better
over something a little less busy.
Lord Jamar makes a welcome
addition to the line up and teams up with Rza on 'Deep Space'. It's one
of the best tracks on the album, but then RZA wouldn't want to rap on
one of his more 'filler' beats. And this brings us to the only problem,
which is what it always seems to be with Wu-Tang affiliated albums
recently, and that is there is quite a few 'skip past this one' tracks.
It's not that they're bad, it's just that they're a little dull. It
tends to be where the track seems to going for a big epic head-nodding
thing and just ends up being a bit, well, slow and boring. That said
there are 21 tracks on this album. One is an intro, one is an
interlude. Of the remaining 19 around half would stand up to repeated
listening, which seems like a pretty good strike rate.
Tom Olesen
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